NEDUNCHAALAI

NEDUNCHALAI – A Paruthiveeran encore?

Cast: - Aari Sashivada, Salim Kumar, Prashant Narayanan

& Crew: - Producers- Soundrarajan & Raju, Direction, story & Screenplay: - Krishna, Music- Sathya, and D.O.P. - Rajavel Othiveeran, Edit- T.I.KIshore

Track list:- 1) Nandooruthu- Palaniammal/Chinna Ponnu, 2) Thamirabarani- C.Sathya 3) Ivan Yaaro - Madhusree 4) Injathea – Roopkumar Rathod, Madhusree, Yazin Nizar, 5) Vaigai Nathi- C.Sathya, Bavani, 6) Kadal Thandi- Elizabeth Malini, Dheeraj Kher

The story, backdrop and setting (Screen play), Once again, Madurai! Madurai, famous for its Malli (Jasmine), Malli poo Idli (soft idlis) and masala paal (milk), is now fast becoming famous for churning out gangster ‘Masala films’. The hero, Tharpai Murugan, and his “merry” gang are masters in looting goods from speeding Lorries on the highway between Kerala and Madurai. The dare devil acts of these “highwaymen” goes on right under the nose of the law. Corrupt policemen, brokers and pimps are all involved in this racket. The Lorries all stop at a roadside Delhi-style Dhaba and the drivers and crew refresh themselves. This Dhaba is run by a spunky girl who is helped by a cook (Thambi Ramiah), his asst and the girl’s good for nothing drunken father. The rough and tough hero stops at the Dhaba to eat but refuses to pay. This leads to the usual altercation between the heroine and the hero and forces the pot (ganja) smoking local inspector to step in. The lecherous inspector has an eye for the pretty Kerala lassie and starts courting her (in the wrong sense). The heroine unable to stand his advances breaks his leg. Then the story takes the regular ‘formula’ route. The Inspector seeks revenge uses Murugan to frame the heroine but fails. Murugan and the heroine fall in love. She forces Murugan to turn a new leaf. But ultimately the past catches up with Murugan in the form of ‘Bothe’ a planter and sandal wood smuggler. Finally fighting against all odds the lovers decide to run away and start a new life but………

The Climax a rather predictable and melodramatic finale. One could possibly term it as a 2 hr 30 min encore of the film ‘Paruthiveeran’!

Acting: - Aari Sashivada as Tharpai Murugan has done what is expected of him. He has understood his character and has attempted to showcase his character change pre interval and post interval quite effectively. That his characterization does not impact the viewer to the extent it should have is not really his fault but the directors failing. His dialogues delivered using “local Madurai slang” are beyond comprehension in most parts.

Swetha Nair as Manga the Dhaba owner has also played her part reasonably well except for the emotive scenes, especially at the climax where she is overly melodramatic to the point of absolute exasperation to the viewer that one almost wants to get up leave the hall!

Prashanth as MassanaMuthu the ‘pot’ (ganja) smoking inspector has ably assayed his role quite well but his delivery of dialogues and body language somehow gave you the feeling that he is an ardent fan of the “Super Star”!

Thambi Ramaiah as the cook does a fairly decent job. His humour works in parts.

Salim Kumar as the local ‘Malayalee’ pimp is the humour quotient in this film. His double meaning dialogues with references to peeing/crapping/ crass sexual undertones may go well with some but a few may turn away in disgust. If his characterization was meant to irritate the viewer after a while, it does succeed.

Kishore as the narrator is a constipated ‘godfather’ whose dialogues one can barely hear leave alone understand.

The rest keep coming and going and can only best be termed as use or throw artistes.

Camera: - Rajavel Oliveeran has indeed done a commendable job with his lighting and camera angles. Especially in maintaining a uniform dark tone having in mind the overall feel necessary for a dark premise such as this is not easy. If not for his work, this film would have failed miserably. Though at times one couldn’t help but feel that he has probably overstepped the acceptable visual boundaries of this film’s premise. Certain scenes had forced and contrived effects like flying leaves/paper/ spark etc and could have been avoided.

Music: - C.Sathya has done a fairly decent job with his B.G score though at times the music score could have been toned down by a few decibels. Once again one wonders as to why our music directors do not use ‘silence’ as an integral part of their B.G score. The songs have been sprayed and spewed all, failing to add any meaning to this film.

Art: - A fairly workmanlike effort. Both budget considerations and lack of imagination can be seen in many places.

Choreo: - Standard fare which probably the Choreo can use only as a number in his C.V.

Stunts: - The usual! In fact during the final scene one thought the protagonist may land in Malaysia!

Edit: - T.KIshore could have trimmed the film by another 15 to 20 mins to reduce boredom and the melodrama.

The one’s that ‘SPED’ on the highway: - 1) The unusual premise 2) The raw visuals 3) The not so hero centric start of the film - on the old man 4) The camera & uniform lighting 5) The ladder & “tow jacking” of goods from the speeding Lorries. 6) The ‘Dhaba’ scenario 7) the art director’s effort 6) Valliant and tireless effort of the music director to keep the film from crashing into obscurity though one item number is a straight lift! 8) Clever usage of scenes to gain political mileage 9) A few comedy lines does help.

The one’s that ‘CRASHED’ on the highway: -  1) The birth of the child (hero) - the height of absurdity 2) The clichéd montage scenes depicting the growing up of the hero 3) The forced ‘Nayagan/godfather’ imitation of the narrator (old man) 4) The constant saga in Tamil cinema -bouts of drinking and eating never ceases to amaze me! 5) The pot (ganja) smoking inspector and a station full of corrupt policemen as always continue to haunt this director too!  6) Once again an independent strong willed heroine is even willing to  “bare all”  to succeed in her effort to stop her lover  7) The universal ‘pimp’ of Tamil cinema, this time a Malayalee 8) The repeated overlooking of certain caste fetish of a few Tamil directors by the ‘CENSORS’.  I have repeatedly pointed to their stoic silence in the past. Once again in this film obvious references are made firstly during the lyrics of the item number and secondly in the scene when the government lawyer is mocked by the magistrate as a good for nothing. The moment the lawyer delivers his rather ‘forced’ dialogue it becomes obvious that he belongs to a caste totally alien to this films premise. 9) The film’s period has no relevance to this story except for a particular reference to M.G.R’s passing away. 10) the unbelievable “spider man” action sequences performed by the hero when he runs and jumps (literally flies) on to the speeding lorry 11) the screaming and screeching by the heroine in the highly melodramatic climax scene looked like a scene straight out of a ‘horror’ flick! 12) The heroine finally lands up in Delhi to become an heiress to an idli selling restaurant chain? Is this some kind of an obvious pointer to the present political scenario and the general elections??

Finally to sum it all up, a quote: "Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you." Roger Ebert

Left right & Centre: - Two software engineers, He: - “I did not like this film at all!” She: - “Definitely can’t see this with my family!” My actor friend: - “We really must have a very high tolerance level to stomach such films” My American friend & Critic: - “I thought the first half was fairly interesting but the second half very disappointing and the last 10mins a big NO!”

Bottom Line: - It’s about time we looked beyond unnecessary violence, police corruption, pimps, villains, melodrama and item numbers and move on to better subjects which will once again make movie going a family fare!

Until next time,    

Director Haricharan

Chennai

29/03/2014